Brothers restore fire-damaged house into family home

Matthew and Janelle Gramling with their children, Mara (from left), Solomon, Makai and Elijah, in the family’s living room.

The Gramlings’ Arts and Crafts-style home will be on the Spaces and Traces tour in the Layton Boulevard West neighborhoods. Brothers Matthew and Jeremy Gramling restored the house, which they bought after discovering their great-grandfather had lived there.

Matthew and Janelle Gramling with their children, Mara (from left), Solomon, Makai and Elijah, in the family’s living room.

The story of how Matthew and Janelle Gramling ended up owning their Layton Blvd.-area home is as unique as the home itself.

The saga started more than 10 years ago, before they were married, when Matthew and his brother, Jeremy, decided they should buy a fixer-upper and move in together. But they didn't want just any fixer-upper. They wanted one that had historical significance.

So Jeremy did some research at a historical society and found information about a home that had their surname. It was called the Manegold/Gramling house, and it was set to be condemned. More researching found that their great-grandfather, Joseph J. Gramling, who was a prominent physician, had lived there.

"I had never been here," Matthew said. "I had no memories of the house. We found out it was built by Arthur Manegold, but my great-grandfather moved here just a few years after it was built and lived here for 30 years. My grandfather grew up here, too."

They found out the English Arts and Crafts-style home was owned by the church next door, and they asked if it was for sale. It was, but it was far from being just a fixer-upper.

"When we first saw it, we had to kick the front door in to get in," Matthew said. "Someone tried to burn it down, and it had been vacant for two years after the fire. Because of water damage, the floor had swollen and we couldn't get in. There were also bats in the house, broken glass everywhere, and there was smoke damage" throughout the house's nearly 2,500 square feet.

"Every window on the second floor had been broken out, and every wall had a hole in it from when the firemen were putting out the fire," Janelle said. "They did a lot of damage, but at least they put out the fire. There was a big hole in the bathroom wall, and the claw-foot tub was hanging out of the wall."

Despite all the damage, and the fact that neither of the men had much experience doing rehab work, they bought the house.

"It was Jeremy's dream to restore this house because he found out about the connection to our family," Matthew said. "He felt the connection, and it was easy to go along with that dream."

The men quit their jobs and moved in with their parents, who then lived on the east side, and began working on the four-bedroom, one-bathroom home.

"We had no map, and there was such a vast array of work to do," Matthew said.

"They spent 12 hours a day there every day of the week," and Matthew sometimes slept there overnight, Janelle said.

Learning while they worked

Over time, broken glass and debris were removed, electricians and plumbers did extensive work, white oak floors and birch woodwork were repaired, walls were repaired and painted, period light fixtures were added, and a new roof was put on.

In the process, Matthew taught himself the art of woodworking, while his brother worked with the electrician and did all the wiring and most of the plasterwork.

"There were no storm windows on the house, so I made all new storms, and I had to rebuild all the windows upstairs," said Matthew, who now owns his own custom woodworking business, matthewgramlingwoodworks.com. His wife is an artist and works mainly with ceramics and fiber arts. Her business is janellegramling.com.

Nearly a year after buying the house, which architect Alexander C. Eschweiler built in 1913, and just days before the birth of Matthew and Janelle's first child, the home was deemed livable, and Matthew moved in with his son, Elijah, who is now 13, his brother, and his future wife.

He began doing woodworking for others to support his family, but continued to work on the house.

Jeremy continued to work and live in the home for another two to three years before moving to Colorado, where he'd lived before.

Over time, Matthew and Janelle were married and had more children. In addition to Elijah, their children are Mara, 10, Makai, 6, and Solomon, 4.

Then the couple also started making furniture.

Wood from antique piano becomes a bed

Because they each had antique upright pianos, and they could use only one piano in their home, they made their bed out of the wood from Janelle's piano.

In the living room, Matthew used reclaimed barn beams to make their sofa and coffee table.

"I sliced them into boards, he said. "They were all cracked, so we filled the cracks with epoxy. On the top of the coffee table Janelle put pieces of turquoise in the epoxy in some of the cracks."

He also built a cabinet in the butler's pantry where a cabinet had been removed.

"There were some plans from our house that we had access to, and it showed a cabinet there, so I copied it," he said. They also decorated the home and furnished it, adding pieces they found curbside, or that were handed down to them.

"Our dining room table was originally in this house," Matthew said. "It was passed down from my great-grandfather to my grandfather and then to my dad. We ate at this table when I was a child. After we moved here, my dad said the table should come back to this house."

Matthew and Janelle Gramling recently talked about their home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Janelle: We were young. We both like working with our hands, so we just started doing it. We got a little more effective every year.

Q. What was the hardest part of working on this home?

Matthew: Working on the balcony. I had to rebuild the wall. It was falling off, and it was dangerous work, and difficult to do. I had to work partly inside and partly outside.

Janelle: We had a move-in deadline of my due date. I was the project manager and I was dealing with my future husband and future brother-in-law. We had deadlines, there were plumbers and electricians here, and I was pregnant, so I was emotionally unstable.

Q. What changes did you make in the kitchen?

Matthew: One wall of cabinets is original. I made more cabinets for the other side of the room to match, put in lower cabinets, and a sink and a granite tile countertop. I built an island with a chopping block top, put in hardwood flooring, and used subway tile for the backsplash and on the walls for a chair rail.

Q. What did you do in the bathroom?

Matthew: Janelle did the tile work. We got the antique sink at a rummage sale.

Janelle: Matthew had to rebuild the walls in the area where the tub was hanging out of the wall. We got a new salvaged claw-foot tub.

Q. Are you done, or are there more projects?

Janelle: We'd like to make the basement nice for the kids and to do laundry. Remnants of the fire still show down there.

Matthew: We also have to finish a bathroom we started in what was once the maid's quarters. We also need to make more furniture for our house.

Q. What's your style of decorating?

Janelle: Modern and traditional. I like minimalism.

Q. There's an area on your stairway where the wood is still charred. Do you plan to replace that?

Matthew: No. We plan to keep that as a reminder of what we all did.

Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you'd like to see featured in At Home? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Tina Maples at (414) 223-5500 or email tmaples@journalsentinel.com.

SPACES AND TRACES LAYTON BOULEVARD WEST NEIGHBORHOODS

Tour eight homes and 10 commercial or public buildings in the Layton Boulevard West neighborhoods, presented by Historic Milwaukee Inc.

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 16. Tour includes

a 1:30 p.m. talk by historian John Gurda on the history of the neighborhood at the School

Sisters of St. Francis Mother House, 1501 S. Layton Blvd. There also will be other pretour events; see website below.

Tickets: $20 for HMI members at Historic Milwaukee Inc., and at historicmilwaukee.org. Nonmembers pay $25. Tickets available at some area businesses. Tour headquarters are Ascension Lutheran Church, 1236 S. Layton Blvd.

Do you, or does someone you know, have a cool, funky or exquisite living space that you’d like to see featured in At Home With? Contact Fresh home and garden editor Nancy Stohs at (414) 224-2382 or email nstohs@journalsentinel.com.